Is Your Company Ready For The GDPR Rollout?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is due to be rolled out on May 25th, just a few short weeks away. Yet new research from the Institute of Directors (IoD) has found that just six out of ten company directors say they’re confident that their businesses will be completely compliant by this time.

Confidence in the preparations already carried out has dropped in the last six months as the scale of these regulations becomes apparent. It was also found that there are many business leaders out there who are concerned about how their companies will be affected by the rules, with about 40 per cent saying they’re either unsure or not confident about the impact they will have.

Head of external affairs at the IoD Jamie Kerr commented on the findings, saying: “GDPR has been a long time coming for businesses, but it is only proving more formidable as the deadline looms and companies drill down into the detail.

“The regulator has assured small businesses that there will be not be a sudden inquisition once the rules enter into effect, but with such large penalties for non-compliance, firms must assess what they have to do to avoid falling foul of the legislation, and they must do so soon.”

Companies can be fined up to four per cent of annual global turnover for non-compliance, or €20 million – the maximum amount that can be imposed for the most serious infringements. This would be something like not having appropriate customer consent to process data or violating the core of Privacy by Design concepts.